Jan 20 Poll confirms: it's time for boldness and smackdown

Let's be clear about something: voters aren't all of a sudden in love with the Republican party. And most voters aren't rational. Especially the so-called 'independents.' Doing something to solve problems isn't enough. You have to sell it. You have to show voters that you are doing right by them, and that your opposition stands in the way of reform.

That is what a new poll reveals. The poll focuses on voters in Massachusetts who voted for Barack Obama for president in 2008 but stayed home or voted for Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown yesterday. That is, they polled dispirited Obama voters and the angry Obama voters who turned around and voted for Brown. The results? Unsurprisingly, these voters do not want, contrary to conventional wisdom, Democrats to dial reform back. In fact, they think Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress aren't doing enough reform. They think that the Democrats aren't taking on Wall Street and big business enough. They think Democrats are looking out too much for the lobbyists.
Now, it is not surprising that when you try to do something big - like health insurance reform - plenty of interests are going to team up against you, and turn the public sentiment against you. That is the oldest thing in the playbook. Tell the people to be afraid of something big, and then when they get scared out of their pants and vote in someone who capitalizes on the anger, claim victory. That is what is going on in MA and across the country.

But that also means that the Democrats and the President have not stood up enough to the special interests, and/or they did not explain their work to the people. We didn't see a big public relations war unveil from the White House or the DNC when the teabaggers went after Democratic members of Congress over the summer on the health insurance bill. We have seen the president on the stump a couple of times trying to sell health care reform, but not enough, and not enough of a follow up by the Democrats. We need to go out an explain every single day. We need to go on the offensive against the Republicans every single day. If that means there is some house-cleaning that's in order, like kicking Joe Lieberman out, then let's do that. Then start driving the big ticket agendas through. Launch a legislative offensive and a PR offensive at the same time. Engage the tools of government and other Democratic powerhouses. This is war. Nothing short of complete humiliation of the right will do.